India overwhelm China 94-0 in Asian Five-Nation Rugby

India overwhelmed favourites China 94-0 in the first of the HSBC Asian Five-Nation Rugby Division II tournament at Delhi University grounds here Wednesday.

India now play the Philippines in the final Saturday. The Philippines beat Thailand 53-33 in the second match of the day. If India manage to get past the Philippines, they will be promoted to Division I.

India, ranked 84, were quick to get off the blocks. They grabbed two early penalties and dominated the 80 minutes' match. The 51-ranked Chinese team, with most of their players from People's Liberation Army based in Guangzhou, failed to get their act together and struggled to cope up with the hot and muggy weather here.

'We played a fantastic game and stuck to our strategy. All the players played a team game and we were well prepared. For our next game we need to cut our errors and we will have a good chance of winning the tournament,' captain Nasser Hussain said.

The hosts raced to 44-0 by half-time and continued in the same vein in the second half.

Kayrus Unwala, Rohaan Sethna and Parvinder Singh scored two tries each, with Gautam Dagar, Pritom Roy, Sandeep Singh and Puneet Krishnamoorty scoring one each. Sethna was the stand out player in an all-round team effort and he also scored the penalties.